Press Release

Major League Baseball players and Volunteers of America team up to help disadvantaged youth and developmentally disabled adults

Major League Baseball Players Trust awards grants totaling $70,000

MLBPA Press Release

CINCINNATI -- Major League baseball players today announced grants totaling $70,000 from the Major League Baseball Players Trust to Volunteers of America programs benefiting at-risk youth and developmentally disabled adults in communities throughout the United States.

Grants of $10,000 each will fund local Volunteers of America programs in Greater Ohio, Delaware Valley, Illinois, North Louisiana, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin to assist homeless youth, disabled adults, and homeless and low-income families.

"On behalf of all Major League baseball players, it is a great honor for the Players Trust to help support the outstanding efforts of Volunteers of America's local offices to improve the lives of disadvantaged children and their families, said Tony Clark, a Players Trust trustee and member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. All Major League baseball players are proud of our national partnership with Volunteers of America. Together we can make a bigger difference in the lives of our neighbors in need, and we encourage others to do the same."

Presented in Cincinnati today at the Volunteers of America national conference, the grants will be used to purchase playground equipment for the Capital Park affordable housing community in Ohio, and Eleanor Corbett House for homeless women and children in New Jersey. The funds also will purchase furnishings for Volunteers of Americas family visitation and activity center in Illinois, a van for a homeless youth transition center in Utah, air conditioning for the Edwards House for developmentally disabled residents in Wisconsin, as well as enable a Nurturing Parent Program curriculum for fourteen counties in Texas and a parent resource library at the Highland Child Development Center in Louisiana.

It is an honor to work with the Major League baseball players and the Players Trust to improve the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, said Charles Gould, national president and chief executive officer of Volunteers of America. We are grateful to have the Major League Baseball Players Trust on our team, and look forward partnering with them in the years ahead.

With the awarding of todays grants, the Players Trust has contributed more than $3,000,000 in support of Volunteers of Americas national and local programs and services since 2002, including a recent $1,000.000 grant to launch the Gulf Region Rental Housing Development Fund.